Posts tagged mfa
The Deer is now listed for sale.

I had hoped she would travel around to exhibitions, but now I can only hope she finds a home where she can be enjoyed and reflected upon. Read about the Deer…

The Deer/ Original Painting on Wood Panel
$5,000.00

Now that my large originals are home, I am able to drop the price a bit! When they are in a gallery I have to share between 40%-60% with the gallery! I spent 3 months making this piece and several months before that conceiving and planning for it! It is made with a LOT of 24k gold and a variety of other materials. Read the story about the Deer, below!

I so believe in omens, whatever name you want to give them. For me, they usually involve animals. And sometimes they come at me in quite dramatic ways, unfortunately. This one happened when I was standing outside my studio in the spring taking a smoke break and enjoying the sun, when a gunshot came out of nowhere. I live in what I would call residential-country. I have an acre and 1/2 of land. There are houses all around and my kids play outside (they were at grandma’s at the time). A police officer then rolls up my driveway to inform me he had just shot and deer on my property. I was taken aback and still in shock. He caught me smoking pot, something that had just become legal in Michigan. So, let’s just put it this way—I didn’t ask questions. The officer left without saying more, and I was left with a body ( I assume the deer had been hit by a car first). I knew I was meant to watch over this deer. This piece was inspired by what I saw over the next few months. I collected fur when that was all that was left, and a few days later an old oak tree fell on where the body was. When I made this piece, I mostly thought about how humans interact with nature. How we impact it with our actions. And how the cycle still wants to happen, even though our impact created a ripple. How fragile nature is. How beautiful and perfect it is. How broken we are.

The deer is made out of the handmade watercolors that I make out of my grandmother’s antique jewelry. It has embedded crystals, moonstones, beads, glass, and a lot of 24k gold. The piece is 3 dimensional. A real cicada husk was embedded and gilded with 24k gold leaf, and the fur of the deer that inspired this piece was used in it, as well. The piece is sealed to protect the organic components. I include a non-static brush for occasional dusting (once or twice a year).

It is 30’’x30’’ on a 3 inch thick, cradled birch panel. I had a white, wood custom frame made for it. The frame is included in the price. The price also includes shipping within the United States. Please allow for a couple of weeks, because I will have to make a custom box for shipping.

Day 58
Day 52


I guess my last post would have applied to yesterday’s #marchmeetthemaker, which was motivation/goals. I have so many goals, I don’t know where to begin sometimes! But in the end, it all seems to work out. Right now my goal is to get these pendants finished! As for motivation, that would be my family. They keep me running.

Day 45

My first portrait of my son. I have been so scared to go there, because especially when they are your own, they are so precious and perfect. I didn’t want to ruin that. Today’s #marchmeetthemaker is supposed to be about me, but I am not really in the mood to show my face today! What is hard about these challenges is finding ways to be on, when you are off! So, I thought I would show this instead! It was painted with my handmade watercolors. I am going to offer custom portraits through my website, soon. Sign up for my newsletter to be notified when they are available!

Day 38

My tools and materials are seriously out of control. I make my own paints with traditional and non traditional pigments. So, I collect things to use in my paints. I also have a screen printing studio and I do electroforming. So there’s a lot more going on than what is in these photos. Once I finish organizing (I just moved my studio), I will do a video of the space!

Day 20

Oh my goodness, I have been bad about getting things up on the blog. I have written in my journal every day for the last 22 days. Turns out, my writing is a lot of half-finished paragraphs and random thoughts. All good stuff, but not for blog content. So here I am, talking about nothing, again.

Someone suggested I paint a snail, so here we are! I have always wanted to paint a snail. I don’t know. I read this story to my daughter and there is a snail named Gail. I know they are pests to some, but aren’t they interesting and magical too?

Day 10

Yesterdays post was delayed. My daughter has a virus and has a terrible cough at night. I have had to stay up with her through the night, and I am exhausted! Steamy showers, VICS, repeat. Anyone have any other tips for a 1 year old sick baby?

Today I am in the studio, enjoying a day of painting, writing, and fighting off the exhaustion after two nights of no sleep. Luckily I have help with the kids today, so I can finish up a few commissions and write a little bit about my materials. There seem to be quite a few people interested in this.

Please keep the questions coming. This gives me something to write about!